Diagnostics

The development of diagnostics to identify patients at very early disease stages is considered as one of the most pressing needs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Accurate and early detection of neurodegenerative diseases, involving protein misfolding, is a substantial unmet medical need. Diagnostic products will play a key role in generating a new treatment paradigm as they enable tracking of pathology over time, monitor the efficacy of disease modifying therapeutics and ultimately diagnose diseases reliably at the earliest stages for immediate treatment.

Diagnostics of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are a major market opportunity that will be driven by an ageing population. The development of diagnostics represents a vast benefit for patients and healthcare systems but also an increased strategic value for AC Immune as they significantly increase the probability of success of clinical studies and represent attractive assets for partnering and a faster access to the market.

We use our Morphomer technology platform, designed to interact with the basic process of protein misfolding, to develop complementary diagnostic products such as PET imaging agents to measure misfolded Tau and α-synuclein in the brain to enable early and reliable diagnosis and guide clinical trials for disease modifying therapeutics.

Tau-PET imaging agent

It is now well established that Tau correlates well with cognitive decline and disease progression making it a potential strong target for diagnostic approaches. Morphomers with high specificity for the pathological forms of Tau and outstanding PET tracer profiles have been identified. The Tau-PET imaging agent program was outlicensed to Piramal Imaging in 2014.

In-vitro diagnostics

Anti-Abeta and anti-Tau antibodies are used to develop in vitro diagnostics for blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

a-syn-PET imaging agent

α-synuclein is a key protein involved in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease. Morphomers with good selectivity and high affinity for α-synuclein and promising properties as PET ligands have been identified. The research is funded by a grant of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. An R&D collaboration to further develop such an alpha-synuclein-PET tracer was signed with Biogen in 2016.

Tau-PET imaging agent

It is now well established that Tau correlates well with cognitive decline and disease progression making it a potential strong target for diagnostic approaches. Morphomers with high specificity for the pathological forms of Tau and outstanding PET tracer profiles have been identified. The Tau-PET imaging agent program was outlicensed to Piramal Imaging in 2014.

In-vitro diagnostics

Abeta/Tau

Anti-Abeta and anti-Tau antibodies are used to develop in vitro diagnostics for blood and cerebrospinal fluid.

a-syn-PET imaging agent

α-synuclein is a key protein involved in the pathology of Parkinson’s disease. Morphomers with good selectivity and high affinity for α-synuclein and promising properties as PET ligands have been identified. The research is funded by a grant of The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s research. An R&D collaboration to further develop such an alpha-synuclein-PET tracer was signed with Biogen in 2016.